Earlier, Naradanews.com CEO Mathew Samuel told CBI investigators that he had sourced the funds required to conduct the Narada sting operation which left the Trinamool Congress redfaced in the run-up to the 2016 Bengal assembly polls from the Kolkata office of the Alchemist Group.

The Narada scam refers to a series of sting videos shot by Naradanews.com over a period of two years, which show several ministers and half a dozen MPs of the ruling Bengal government allegedly accepting bribes. A probe was taken up into the matter before the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.